samyieevans: March 2013

Sunday 31 March 2013

Texas DA slain in his home; had armed himself

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland took no chances after one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down two months ago. McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere he went and took extra care when answering the door at his home.

"I'm ahead of everybody else because, basically, I'm a soldier," the 23-year Army veteran said in an interview less than two weeks ago.

On Saturday, he and his wife were found shot to death in their rural home just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas.

While investigators gave no motive for the killings, Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said: "It appears this was not a random act."

"Everybody's a little on edge and a little shocked," he said.

The slayings came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict, and two months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. No arrests have been made in Hasse's slaying Jan. 31.

McLelland, 63, is the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.

Sheriff David Byrnes said Sunday that there was nothing to indicate for sure whether McLelland's slaying was connected to Hasse's. He declined to discuss it further. The sheriff also said he had no indication that white supremacist groups were involved in the killing of the DA.

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities suspect shot Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.

El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said Sunday that investigators had found no evidence so far connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."

McLelland, in an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

McLelland, elected DA in 2010, said that Hasse hadn't prosecuted any cases against white supremacists but that his office had handled several, and those gangs had a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.

"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," McLelland said.

McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere he went, even to walk his dog around town, a bedroom community for the Dallas area. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

"The people in my line of work are going to have to get better at it," he said of dealing with the danger, "because they're going to need it more in the future."

The number of attacks on prosecutors, judges and senior law enforcement officers in the U.S. has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., District Attorney's Office who tracks such cases.

For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers joined the investigation into the McLellands' deaths.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Rozell said.

"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant, happy couple."

___

Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk in Houston, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-da-slain-home-had-armed-himself-175942683.html

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Riding in style: The evolution of the popemobile

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA

Images of the automobiles that have transported popes over the years.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

Comes outfitted in protective bullet-proof glass. Draws a crowd wherever it goes. A driver is included; gold trim is optional.

Popemobiles also include such amenities as a handrail to let the pope easily stand and wave while in motion, a built-in stereo and arctic-cool air conditioning.

Eight popes have had their own set of holy wheels since Pope Pius XI got a stretch 460 Nurberg edition Mercedes-Benz in 1930, but the eighth, Pope Francis -- known for?taking the bus to work?before he was named pope -- may not want all the frills and custom built-ins that popemobiles offer.?

By retiring, Benedict XVI has passed along a white armored Mercedes SUV, which has a white leather interior with gold trim and a white leather turret that can be raised by hydraulic lift high enough for crowds to see the pope, if he wants to sit. (For longer trips around Italy, Benedict enjoyed his own helicopter.) Bullet-proof?Plexiglas?that's strong enough to withstand explosions surrounds the turret on three sides. There's an emergency oxygen supply built in, according to?The Telegraph.?

"The pope must feel comfortable. People must be able to see him. People have traveled very far; they want to be able to get a good look at him," said Christoph Horn, Director of Global Communications of Mercedes-Benz, from Stuttgart, Germany. "This is about creating a comfortable and safe environment for the pope to travel in and be seen in.?

The pre-mobile
Popes didn't have to wait for the invention of automobiles to be mobile. For centuries, popes traveled by throne when going out on local outings. The popes were carried by 12 bearers (representing the 12 disciples of the church) as they moved through crowds, Ronald Rychlak, a University of Mississippi law school professor who has written numerous books on religion,?said.

Daimler

The first car used by a pope.

All that changed when Pope Pius XI got his Benz. The limousine was a gift from the car company, which would provide vehicles for many popes after that.

"Usually more than one vehicle was provided, especially for the popes in the 1930s," Horn said. "They were traveling a lot, so many popemobiles were built for them."

Back then, popes traveled in limousines with open tops, he said. Over the years, more than 12 different models of cars and trucks would be provided for popes. Pius XI himself ushered in a new era of pope cars in 1960 with a Mercedes 300D Landaulet, which had a throne that rose high in the back, The New York Times reported, before he switched to a 1964 Lincoln model. His successor, Pope Pope VI, went back to the preferred Mercedes brand a year later.

But don't call it 'popemobile'
When popes travel abroad for state visits, it's not always possible for the vehicles they use at home to make the journey with them. Instead, customized cars are prepared ahead of the visit, submitted for Vatican approval from the country he will visit.

"The primary level of security is assigned to the host nation,"?Rychlak said. "If they want to have something like a popemobile for a major parade, let's say they're doing Mass at Yankee stadium or something like that, they would have to make arrangements to ship something over, or that's the kind of situation where there may be a gift made to the pope" by a major car company.

That was how the car that officially became known for the first time as the "popemobile" came into existence: Pope John Paul II had visited Ireland in 1979, and a boxy yellow Ford Transit van awaited him as his chariot. Last November, The Telegraph reported an Irish businessman had acquired the van from the Dublin Wax Museum, where it had been since the papal visit, and was transforming it into a party bus.

Many other popemobiles have stayed in the countries they were used in. In 2008, Newsweek got a peek at the popemobile Benedict used for his U.S. tour, describing it as "by far the fanciest and sleekest papal car ever built ... The papal handlers can shift their passenger from zero to 60 in less than eight seconds, but the drivers probably won't exceed 10 mph along the parade routes."

In 2002, John Paul II asked the media to stop using the term "popemobile," insisting it sounded "undignified."

A clear need for better security
John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in 1981 while in St. Peter's Square. A Turkish man was later convicted of firing the shots, which punctured the pope's car and struck him four times. John Paul II survived, but it was clear his wide-open truck wouldn't suffice to protect him. From then on, bulletproof glass has encased popemobiles, although popes have occasionally ridden around without covering for brief periods.

Arturo Mari / AP

A 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

Since adding bulletproof glass, popemobiles have added other necessary features, including ultra-powerful air conditioning to cool down the glass dome that popes sit in, reports The Telegraph.

Other protection measures include heavy-metal reinforcement on the bottom of the vehicle as well as the other sides, and the driver is always a trusted longtime Vatican employee. There's no partition between the pope and his driver; a microphone enables him to broadcast messages to crowds through speakers outside the popemobile.

The current weighs five tons and was just presented to Benedict last December by Mercedes-Benz.

"We work with the members of the Vatican and with the people in charge of the garages of the Vatican," Horn said. "These are all individual vehicles that are built to specifications."

The new pope's desire to get up close and personal with his faithful has presented challenges for his security detail.

"The pope's going to want to be up close hugging and touching and meeting people and that's going to be a tremendous concern for his security people,"?Rychlak said. "His security forces have taken him aside, or probably already have, and are going to say, 'Holy Father, you're putting us in a horrible situation if you don't go along with these things.'"

They're used to having to say that, though: Benedict didn't always like the feeling of a "shield between him and the people,"?Rychlak said. Most popemobiles are designed so the glass can be lowered, though.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a2d2254/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C310C175184590Eriding0Ein0Estyle0Ethe0Eevolution0Eof0Ethe0Epopemobile0Dlite/story01.htm

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Panasonic explains how its color splitter sensor works in a vividly detailed video

You'd be forgiven if you weren't entirely on the same page with Panasonic regarding its micro color splitter sensor: it's a big break from the traditional Bayer filter approach on digital cameras, and the deluge of text doesn't do much to simplify the concept. Much to our relief, DigInfo TV has grilled Panasonic in a video that provides a more easily digestible (if still deep) interpretation. As the technology's creator says, it's all about the math. To let in so much light through the splitters requires processing the light in four mixed colors, and that processing requires studying the light's behavior in 3D. Panasonic's new method (Babinet-BPM) makes that feasible by finishing tasks 325 times faster than usual, all while chewing up just a 16th of the memory. The company isn't much closer to having production examples, but it's clarifying that future development will be specialized -- it wants to fine-tune the splitter behavior for everything from smartphone cameras through to security systems. Catch the full outline after the break.

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Source: DigInfo TV

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/NFJicOhetNA/

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Saturday 30 March 2013

Source: Business, labor get deal on worker program

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big business and labor have struck a deal on a new low-skilled worker program, removing the biggest hurdle to completion of sweeping immigration legislation allowing 11 million illegal immigrants eventual U.S. citizenship, a person with knowledge of the talks said Saturday.

The agreement was reached in a phone call late Friday night with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who's been mediating the dispute.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement, said the deal resolves disagreements over wages for the new workers and which industries would be included. Those disputes had led talks to break down a week ago, throwing into doubt whether Schumer and seven other senators crafting a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill would be able to complete their work as planned.

The deal must still be signed off on by the other senators working with Schumer, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, but that's expected to happen. With the agreement in place, the senators are expected to unveil their legislation the week of April 8. Their measure would secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.

It's a major second-term priority of President Barack Obama's and would usher in the most dramatic changes to the nation's faltering immigration system in more than two decades.

The AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce, longtime antagonists over temporary worker programs, had been fighting over wages for tens of thousands of low-skilled workers who would be brought in under the new program to fill jobs in construction, hotels and resorts, nursing homes and restaurants, and other industries.

Under the agreement, a new "W'' visa program would go into effect beginning April 1, 2015, according to another official involved with the talks who also spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

In year one of the program, 20,000 workers would be allowed in; in year two, 35,000; in year three, 55,000; and in year four, 75,000. Ultimately the program would be capped at 200,000 workers a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau pushed by the labor movement as an objective monitor of the market.

A "safety valve" would allow employers to exceed the cap if they can show need and pay premium wages, but any additional workers brought in would be subtracted from the following year's cap, the official said.

The workers could move from employer to employer and would be able to petition for permanent residency and ultimately seek U.S. citizenship. Neither is possible for temporary workers now.

The new program would fill needs employers say they have that are not currently met by U.S. immigration programs. Most industries don't have a good way to hire a steady supply of foreign workers because there's one temporary visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers but it's capped at 66,000 visas per year and is only supposed to be used for seasonal or temporary jobs.

Business has sought temporary worker programs in a quest for a cheaper workforce, but labor has opposed the programs because of concerns over working conditions and the effect on jobs and wages for U.S. workers. The issue helped sink the last major attempt at immigration overhaul in 2007, which the AFL-CIO opposed partly because of temporary worker provisions, and the flare-up earlier this month sparked concerns that the same thing would happen this time around. Agreement between the two traditional foes is one of many indications that immigration reform has its best chance in decades in Congress this year.

After apparent miscommunications earlier this month between the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce on the wage issue, the deal resolves it in a way both sides are comfortable with, officials said.

Workers would earn actual wages paid to American workers or the prevailing wages for the industry they're working in, whichever is higher. The Labor Department would determine prevailing wage based on customary rates in specific localities, so that it would vary from city to city.

There also had been disagreement on how to handle the construction industry, which unions argue is different from other industries in the new program because it can be more seasonal in nature and includes a number of higher-skilled trades. The official said the resolution will cap at 15,000 a year the number of visas that can be sought by the construction industry.

Schumer called White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Saturday to inform him of the deal, the person with knowledge of the talks said. The three principals in the talks ? Trumka, Donohue and Schumer ? agreed they should meet for dinner soon to celebrate, the person said.

Separately, the new immigration bill also is expected to offer many more visas for high-tech workers, new visas for agriculture workers, and provisions allowing some agriculture workers already in the U.S. a speedier path to citizenship than that provided to other illegal immigrants, in an effort to create a stable agricultural workforce.

___

Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/source-business-labor-deal-worker-180416573.html

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More trouble for Cohen's SAC Capital as Steinberg indicted in NY

By Nate Raymond and Matthew Goldstein

(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged Michael Steinberg, a veteran portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund, with insider trading in two technology stocks, the most senior SAC Capital Advisors' employee to be indicted in the government's long-running probe.

FBI agents arrested Steinberg at his Park Avenue home in New York City at around 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT). Steinberg, wearing a blue sweater, pleaded "not guilty" to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities when he appeared at a late morning arraignment.

The five-count indictment charges Steinberg, 40, with using inside information to trade shares of computer maker Dell Inc and chipmaker Nvidia Corp in 2008 and 2009 that generated about $1.4 million in illegal profits for Cohen's $15 billion hedge fund.

In a related civil complaint against Steinberg, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the information allowed Steinberg to generate $6.4 million in profits and avoided losses for the hedge fund.

Barry Berke, Steinberg's lawyer, said in a statement that his client had done "absolutely nothing wrong" and his "trading decisions were based on detailed analysis."

The charges come after a tumultuous six months for Cohen, one of the most successful hedge fund traders. It began with last November's arrest of former SAC portfolio manager Mathew Martoma in what prosecutors had described as the largest U.S. insider-trading case.

Martoma pleaded not guilty to charges of insider trading in Elan Corp and Wyeth that allegedly resulted in profits and avoided losses totaling $276 million.

SAC Capital agreed two weeks ago to pay a $616 million penalty to the SEC to settle allegations of improper trading by the firm arising out of the Martoma investigation and alleged improper trading in Dell and Nvidia. SAC neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of that settlement.

But a federal judge on Thursday said he was reserving his decision on approving the deal.

Mounting concern over the insider trading probe prompted outside investors in SAC Capital to submit redemption notices last month to withdraw up to $1.68 billion from Cohen's firm. Several outside investors, including Blackstone Group, declined to comment on Steinberg's arrest.

Cohen, a multi-billionaire, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. A well-known art collector, he recently purchased Pablo Picasso's "Le Reve" from casino owner Stephen Wynn for $155 million and, according to The New York Times, bought a $60 million oceanfront home in East Hampton, N.Y.

$3 MILLION BOND

Steinberg is one of nine current or former employees of SAC Capital who have been charged or implicated with insider trading while working at Cohen's two-decade-old hedge fund.

His arrest had been widely expected after Jon Horvath, a former SAC analyst who reported to Steinberg, pleaded guilty last year to using illegally obtained information to trade in Dell. Horvath has been cooperating with the government and had implicated Steinberg.

Steinberg was suspended last autumn from his post at SAC Capital's Sigma Capital division and remains on paid leave.

SAC Capital spokesman Jonathan Gasthalter said: "Mike has conducted himself professionally and ethically during his long tenure at the firm. We believe him to be a man of integrity."

Prosecutors have introduced emails that they said indicated Steinberg had access to inside information about potential weakness in Dell's earnings, in advance of the personal computer maker's August 2008 results announcement.

Federal authorities contend the improper trading by Steinberg largely involved short positions and derivative trades. The trades involving shares of Dell occurred in August 2008, while the trading in Nvidia took place in May 2009.

The SEC complaint said some of the trading in Dell was done by a SAC portfolio called SAC Select. People familiar with SAC Select said it used computer-driven trading strategies to mimic the trades of some of SAC Capital's top portfolio managers.

The complaint against Steinberg made no reference to Cohen, unlike the criminal and civil cases filed by against Martoma, which was the first time authorities had alluded to him as the "owner" of the hedge fund.

Steinberg had been moving among several hotels in New York City in recent weeks, according to Reuters sources, as he wanted to avoid being arrested at his Upper East Side home where he lives with his wife and two children.

Following the arraignment before U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in lower Manhattan on Friday morning, Steinberg was released after agreeing to post $3 million in bond, which was secured by $1 million in property.

During the proceeding, a federal prosecutor said no search warrant was served on the hedge fund in connection with the charges against Steinberg.

In announcing the $616 million settlement with SAC Capital, lawyers with the SEC made clear the deal did not preclude further charges against individuals or from other trading at SAC Capital that is still be investigated. As part of that settlement, SAC Capital agreed to pay $14 million to settle charges of improper trading in Dell.

On Thursday, a federal district judge reviewing the part of the settlement involving trading in shares of Elan and Wyeth, now a part of Pfizer, said he was reserving decision for now.

The cases in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York are: United States v. Steinberg, No. 12-cr-121, and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Steinberg, No. 13-2082.

(Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Katya Wachtel and Sruthi Ramakrishnan; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-sac-capital-portfolio-manager-steinberg-arrested-fbi-114324817--sector.html

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In Pakistan underworld, a cop is said to be a king

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ? A corrupt, low-level cop with a healthy dose of street smarts rises to control hundreds of illegal gambling dens in Pakistan's largest city. By doling out millions of dollars in illicit proceeds, he protects his empire and becomes one of the most powerful people in Karachi.

The allegations against Mohammed Waseem Ahmed ? or Waseem "Beater" as he is more commonly known ? emerged recently from surprise testimony by a top police commander before a crusading anti-crime Supreme Court judge. The story has given a rare and colorful glimpse into the vast underworld in Karachi, a chaotic metropolis of 18 million people on Pakistan's southern coast.

The sprawling city has become notorious for violence, from gangland-style killings and kidnappings to militant bombings and sectarian slayings. Further worrying authorities have been signs that the Pakistani Taliban are using the chaos to gain a greater foothold in the city.

For months, the Supreme Court's Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been leading special hearings on Karachi's crime, berating the city's top police officers for failing to act. This past week, he demanded they move in to clean up so-called "no-go" areas ? entire neighborhoods where police fear to tread ? according to local press reports.

Further fueling the problem is rampant police corruption, undermining efforts to combat the city's violent gangs and extremists. Among the public, the police nationwide are seen as the country's most crooked public sector organization, a high bar given claims of pervasive corruption throughout the government.

The allegations surrounding Ahmed further fuel questions about the overlap between Karachi's underworld and its police forces. After the testimony to the Supreme Court earlier this year, police officials in Karachi provided The Associated Press with additional details over his reported rise.

The AP made repeated attempts to contact Ahmed, who has been removed from the force and fled to Dubai, but was not successful.

Ahmed came from a poor family in Karachi's old city and joined the police force in the 1990s. He soon started working as a "beater," a low-level thug who works for more senior cops to collect a cut from illegal activities in their area, such as gambling, prostitution and drug dealing, said half a dozen police officers who knew him personally at the time. They all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Ahmed, who sports a bushy black mustache and usually dresses in a simple, white shalwar kameez, earned a reputation for carrying out his illicit work efficiently, said two police officers who have known him ever since he joined the force. That reputation helped him forge relationships with more senior figures, and eventually he was collecting money for some of the top police officers and civilian security officials in Karachi, they said.

The heavyset 40-year-old also attracted the attention of a local boss who controlled the largest concentration of illegal gambling dens in Karachi, located in the city's rough and tumble Ghas Mandi area, where Ahmed worked, said the policemen and a local journalist. The two teamed up to expand their gambling empire to other parts of Karachi and surrounding Sindh province.

Gambling was not always illegal in Pakistan, a nation of 180 million people that gained independence from Britain in 1947 as a sanctuary for Muslims who did not believe they could thrive as part of what is now India, a majority Hindu state. Despite the religious undertones of Pakistan's founding, the country's major cities, such as Karachi and Lahore, were relatively liberal places in the first few decades after independence. Alcohol flowed freely in nightclubs filled with dancing girls.

But in 1977, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto banned gambling and alcohol for Muslims in an attempt to appease Islamic hard-liners. Drinking and gambling, which are forbidden in Islam, didn't stop, but much of it was driven underground.

The gambling dens in Ghas Mandi are hidden behind nondescript facades down dark alleyways with tangled electrical wires hanging overhead in one of the oldest and densest populated parts of Karachi.

In one den, a dozen men dressed in shalwar kameez sat in a semicircle on the floor playing a local card game, mang patta, beneath bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The men sipped tea and tossed 100 rupee ($1) poker chips at the dealer.

In an adjacent room, a handful of men played chakka, a game that involved guessing the numbers that would appear when the dealer rolled three dice out of what looked like an old leather Yahtzee cup. Rupee notes were placed on a table as bets and held in place by a large metal washer. Everyone stopped their games when the Muslim call to prayer came over a loudspeaker from a nearby mosque ? and they promptly resumed the dice and cards once the prayer ended.

Ahmed earned tens of thousands of dollars each day from hundreds of such gambling dens, said the policemen and journalist who knew him. He also collected extortion money from drug dealers and brothels and smuggled diesel fuel into Karachi from neighboring Iran, where it is much cheaper, they said.

He distributed cash to senior officials, and the pay-outs made him one of the most powerful people in Karachi's police force, said his acquaintances. He won significant influence over who was posted to senior positions, thus providing him with protection, they said. Known as a man of few words who rarely loses his cool, Ahmed also handed out money to Karachi's powerful criminal gangs and traveled with roughly a dozen armed guards as an insurance policy.

He was sailing smoothly through the underworld until one of the Supreme Court sessions in January.

A petitioner outlined to the court allegations of Ahmed's illicit activities and his power in the police force. Chief Justice Chaudhry then asked senior police officers and civilian officials who were present about the allegations. They all expressed ignorance.

But Deputy Inspector General Bashir Memon spoke up and backed the petitioner's claims.

"I said yes, Waseem 'Beater' is present among the ranks of the Karachi police. He controls the gambling business in Karachi," Memon told The Associated Press. "I also confirmed that he is involved in the transfer and posting of junior and senior police officers."

Another senior police officer in Sindh province, Sanaullah Abbasi, also testified that he knew Ahmed and that he controlled gambling dens in Karachi.

Chaudhry lambasted the senior officials for not going after Ahmed and asked Memon whether he was concerned about contradicting his colleagues.

"I replied, 'I only told you the truth,'" Memon told the AP.

As a sign of Ahmed's power, Memon said he was told the same day he would be transferred out of Karachi, but the Supreme Court canceled the transfer order.

Ahmed was dismissed from the police force after the Supreme Court hearing, according to two senior police officers, and government records indicate he flew to Dubai and has not returned.

Hassan Abbas, an expert on the Pakistani police at the New York-based Asia Society, said Ahmed's case provides a stark illustration of the level of corruption in the Karachi police force, which he described as the worst in any of Pakistan's major cities. Criminal cases are currently pending against 400 police officers serving in Karachi, said Abbas.

Civilian officials, who also benefit from corruption, have shown no willingness to reform the system, making the force relatively ineffective in cracking down on criminal gangs and Islamist militants in the city, said Abbas.

"The chaos in Karachi provides criminal gangs with the cover they need to operate," said Abbas. "Corruption provides an incentive to continue that chaos."

____

Follow Sebastian Abbot on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sebabbot

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-underworld-cop-said-king-065254507.html

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Jumbo Squid-Cam Uncovers Secrets of Elusive Creature

To see firsthand how an elusive species of jumbo squid lives, scientists have strapped video cameras to the carnivorous sea creature in the eastern Pacific.

The footage has helped reveal some remarkable secrets of the Humboldt squid: They are capable of amazing bursts of speed, up to nearly 45 mph (72 km/h); they "talk" to each other by changing their body color; and they hunt in big synchronized groups.

Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) ? which can grow to more than 6 feet (2 meters) in length and 100 pounds (45 kilograms) in weight ? have razor-sharp beaks and toothed suckers. Mass strandings of the species and reports of aggression toward humans have spooked beachgoers for decades, but the jumbo squid are not man-eaters ? they usually feed on small fish and plankton that are no more than a few inches in length, though they sometimes cannibalize each other.

For all the squid's captivating features, scientists still have many questions about the species' behavior, so biologists at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station turned to the National Geographic Society's Crittercam, which has been used to study animals ranging from penguins to hyenas. [Image Gallery: Humboldt Squid Stranding]

Attaching a quart-sized device with a camera and sensors to a squid presents some technical problems. The trick is to find a big enough squid and fix the Crittercam onto a child's bathing suit so that it can be slipped over the creature's fins like a spandex sleeve, Stanford biologist William Gilly explained in a video.

The resulting video footage and data from echosounding studies showed that Humboldt squid can jet-propel themselves at speeds comparable to the fastest ocean fish. They hunt in tightly coordinated groups, a behavior that's usually associated with fish rather than invertebrates (animals without a backbone) like squid, the researchers found. And smaller squid tend keep their distance from the bigger ones, likely to avoid being cannibalized.

Jumbo squid are known to have pigmented cells, called chromatophores, which allow them to change color in response to neural impulses. The cameras allowed the researchers to watch the squid flashing like a strobe light in their natural habitat. Gilly said the only time the squid seem to make these red-and-white color signals is when they encounter another individual of their species.

"We don't know exactly what those discussions mean," Gilly said in a video from Stanford. For now, interpreting those interactions is like trying to decipher what two people are saying to each other just by watching their mouths move, he added.

Humboldt squid live in the eastern Pacific Ocean from the tip of South America up to Mexico, but have been moving farther north in recent years. Scientists believe the species might be migrating up the coast as warming oceans are creating larger low-oxygen zones deep below the surface, environments where the squid live.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or Google+.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jumbo-squid-cam-uncovers-secrets-elusive-creature-012118255.html

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Friday 29 March 2013

'Freakshow' man shaves and sews with toes

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

Jim, otherwise known as The Armless Wonder, was born without arms or hands, but there's nothing he can't do. Don't believe it? You'll change your mind after watching this exclusive "Freakshow" clip AMC shared with The Clicker.

The cameras follow Jim performing his morning routine -- shaving, brushing his teeth, sipping coffee while reading the newspaper, sewing?

Hold up!

Yes, while, most of us can barely thread a needle with 10 fingers, Jim does it effortlessly with his toes.

"I don't consider myself disabled," Jim said. And why should he? He also writes, drives, plays sports and goes fishing.

"If you find something I can't do," he added, "then we'll talk."

We don't expect to be having that conversation anytime soon.

"Freakshow" airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on AMC.

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/28/17504120-freakshows-armless-wonder-threads-a-needle-with-his-toes?lite

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In UN arms trade treaty debate, US signature may hinge on Brits

With the US reluctant to sign on to an arms trade treaty being negotiated this week at the UN, Britain ? as both treaty advocate and major arms dealer ? may be best positioned to sway its ally.

By Ben Quinn,?Correspondent / March 27, 2013

As the UN approaches its final day of talks over a comprehensive global treaty to regulate the $70 billion international conventional arms trade, several major stumbling blocks remain. One of those has been opposition from the US, whose domestic gun lobby and major share of global arms exports push against restrictions on weapons sales.

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But as talks go down to the wire, a pivotal persuading influence on the US could yet come from a particularly close ally, major arms dealer in its own right, and the only one of the permanent five members on the UN security council to have consistently backed the arms treaty: the UK.

Ahead of the final day of talks at the UN?s New York headquarters on Thursday, the focus remains on achieving a treaty that would create an agreed standard for transfers of any type of conventional weapon ? from pistols all the way through to to war planes ? and require nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism, and violations of humanitarian law.

Obstacles to the treaty have revolved around the position of major arms state exporters such as Russia, which has been attempting to revive its role in the international arms trade in recent years. Russia also shares Chinese concerns that a treaty could still allow for the arming of non-state actors seeking to overthrow regimes such as those governing some of China?s African client states.

The American gun lobby has meanwhile been a major factor in the thinking of the US, which is alone responsible for 30 percent of global arms exports and has been dragging its feet over the inclusion of ammunition imports in a treaty, as pressed for by rights groups and most UN member states.

But Britain may be able to bridge that gap. Though one of the world?s major arms exporters with aspirations of strengthening its weapons industry as a way of boosting its enfeebled economy, the UK has nonetheless advocated a strong treaty ? as a way to bring the rest of the world toward its own strict weapons regulation.

What the UK can do "is make the argument to the US about bringing everyone up to the level of regulation that the US already has,? says Joanna Spear, an associate professor of international affairs at George Washington University, arms trade expert, and visiting fellow at London?s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defense think tank.

?That?s already one of the big reasons why representatives of major arms companies in Europe are actually in favor of this treaty. Their concern is that they are bound by stricter regulation than others are and that this has been a disadvantage, while US regulation has also been similarly strong."

And while domestic politics and gun control issues remain the major impediment to a comprehensive US embrace of a treaty, according to Ms. Spear the treaty's prospect has been strengthened by President Obama?s reelection and the reaction to the Newtown school massacre.

Diluted but inclusive or strong but exclusive?

The UK?s position on the treaty has been heavily influenced by lobbying from non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Oxfam, a UK charity concerned with global poverty. However, NGOs have been worried that a draft document put forward on Friday night suggests a watered-down treaty is being touted.

However, after a final draft was circulated Wednesday, some NGOs gave a qualified welcome to a text expected to be adopted Thursday.

?While there are still deficiencies in this final draft, this treaty has the potential to provide significant human rights protection and curb armed conflict and violence if all governments demonstrate the political will to implement it properly and develop it in the future,? Brian Wood, head of arms control and human rights at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

?It?s also encouraging that the final draft forces states to assess the overriding risk of serious human rights violations ? including summary killings, torture and enforced disappearances ? before allowing arms transfers to go ahead. We expect all states to ratify the treaty promptly after it is adopted and implement this provision in good faith."

There was still disappointment among NGOs that the scope of the treaty remains limited in terms of what types of arms should be covered.

Amnesty on Monday welcomed the draft's proposed ban on weapons being transferred to countries known for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. But the group also claimed that the draft treaty would fail to prevent arms going to states where there is a substantial risk the arms will be used to commit summary killings or facilitate torture.

Another UK NGO, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), also expressed concerns on Monday. Its director of policy, Iain Overton, used Twitter from New York to accuse the president of the conference, Australia?s UN ambassador Peter Woolcott, of not listening to calls for a strong treaty ?because he wants a consensus at whatever price.?

?Clearly one would want to see maximum sign-up around the world, but at the same time, does one trade off maximum sign-up for a diluted treaty that is so lacking in values that it is not worth the paper it is written on?? says Steven Smith, AOAV?s chief executive, who is in London.

Another argument holds that it is necessary to cut away elements of the treaty in order to bring key players onside. ?For example, the argument for having the US in, and perhaps doing so by cutting away ammunition, is that it is the dominant player in the conventional arms trade these days and has got such a lock on trade,? says Spear.?

Even if the conference fails to reach a consensus, however, delegates say they can put it to a vote in the UN General Assembly to rescue it. Either way, if a treaty is approved, national legislatures will need to ratify it.

Meanwhile, advocates of a strong treaty cite the escalating conflict in Syria as evidence of the high stakes at work in New York.

?The Russians have been taking the stance that where there already contracts in place, they should override any humanitarian consequences of transfer,? says AOAV?s Mr. Smith.

?That in my view is entirely against the spirit of what is trying to be achieved here. What we are saying is: ?Look guys, wake up and smell the coffee. This is how these weapons are being used and the fact that you have signed a contract two years or five years ago or whatever else, surely your humanitarian principles and common sense will cause you to override that.'?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iKNJtt3qc2w/In-UN-arms-trade-treaty-debate-US-signature-may-hinge-on-Brits

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Thursday 28 March 2013

Five people die in mobile home fire in western Illinois

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/five-people-die-mobile-home-fire-western-illinois-161837738.html

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Kidney stone surgery: More women, more complications with minimally invasive procedure

Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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Contact: Dwight Angell
dwight.angell@hfhs.org
313-850-3471
Henry Ford Health System

DETROIT While the number of people especially women who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital.

The research, from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute, appears in the current issue of Journal of Urology.

The focus of the investigation was the procedure, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL, in which a surgeon removes medium to large kidney stones through a small incision in the back using a hollow scope.

Minimally invasive procedures used for treating a wide range of medical conditions have increased in recent years, and the Henry Ford researchers set out to find how much and to what effect this is true for this specific procedure.

"What we found is that the use of PCNL in this country has increased," Dr. Ghani said, "and more women than men have the procedure.

"We also discovered that while the rate of PCNL-related death is low and has remained so, incidence of blood infection and overall complications has increased."

The population-based study looked at data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of inpatient hospital stays used by researchers to find, track and analyze national health care trends. The database catalogs some 8 million cases from more than 1,000 hospitals in 44 states.

It was used in this study to identify patients who underwent PCNL between 1999 and 2009. A weighted sample was then formulated to estimate utilization rates across the country.

In addition, Henry Ford researchers tracked and analyzed trends in patient age; complications before, during and after the procedure; other disorders or diseases that existed at the time of the surgery; and in-hospital deaths.

A total of 80,097 patients over the age of 18 and with a median age of 53 were found to have undergone PCNL during the study period, during which the number of times the procedure was performed climbed by 47 percent.

The results showed:
PCNL use rose from 3.0 to 3.63 per 100,000 men, and from 2.99 to 4.07 per 100,000 women during the study period. This represented a 0.03 percent increase in men who underwent the procedure compared to a 2.54 percent increase in women.
Co-morbidity, or the presence of other disorders or disease at the time of surgery, increased during the study time-span.
At the same time, overall complications increased from 12.2 percent in 1999 to 15.6 percent in 2009.
Significantly, the incidence of sepsis or blood infection doubled, rising from 1.2 percent to 2.4 percent.
The rate of PCNL-related death remained essentially unchanged at 0 to 0.4 percent.
Dr. Ghani and his associates concluded that patients were at higher risk of developing complications if they were older, sicker and treated in more recent years. And though the rate of deaths associated with the procedure remained statistically flat, those cases that did occur were found with older patients.

"We believe the broad use of this procedure, especially in older and sicker patients, may be the reason for these changes," Dr. Ghani said.

###

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Kidney stone surgery: More women, more complications with minimally invasive procedure Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dwight Angell
dwight.angell@hfhs.org
313-850-3471
Henry Ford Health System

DETROIT While the number of people especially women who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital.

The research, from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute, appears in the current issue of Journal of Urology.

The focus of the investigation was the procedure, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL, in which a surgeon removes medium to large kidney stones through a small incision in the back using a hollow scope.

Minimally invasive procedures used for treating a wide range of medical conditions have increased in recent years, and the Henry Ford researchers set out to find how much and to what effect this is true for this specific procedure.

"What we found is that the use of PCNL in this country has increased," Dr. Ghani said, "and more women than men have the procedure.

"We also discovered that while the rate of PCNL-related death is low and has remained so, incidence of blood infection and overall complications has increased."

The population-based study looked at data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of inpatient hospital stays used by researchers to find, track and analyze national health care trends. The database catalogs some 8 million cases from more than 1,000 hospitals in 44 states.

It was used in this study to identify patients who underwent PCNL between 1999 and 2009. A weighted sample was then formulated to estimate utilization rates across the country.

In addition, Henry Ford researchers tracked and analyzed trends in patient age; complications before, during and after the procedure; other disorders or diseases that existed at the time of the surgery; and in-hospital deaths.

A total of 80,097 patients over the age of 18 and with a median age of 53 were found to have undergone PCNL during the study period, during which the number of times the procedure was performed climbed by 47 percent.

The results showed:
PCNL use rose from 3.0 to 3.63 per 100,000 men, and from 2.99 to 4.07 per 100,000 women during the study period. This represented a 0.03 percent increase in men who underwent the procedure compared to a 2.54 percent increase in women.
Co-morbidity, or the presence of other disorders or disease at the time of surgery, increased during the study time-span.
At the same time, overall complications increased from 12.2 percent in 1999 to 15.6 percent in 2009.
Significantly, the incidence of sepsis or blood infection doubled, rising from 1.2 percent to 2.4 percent.
The rate of PCNL-related death remained essentially unchanged at 0 to 0.4 percent.
Dr. Ghani and his associates concluded that patients were at higher risk of developing complications if they were older, sicker and treated in more recent years. And though the rate of deaths associated with the procedure remained statistically flat, those cases that did occur were found with older patients.

"We believe the broad use of this procedure, especially in older and sicker patients, may be the reason for these changes," Dr. Ghani said.

###

[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/hfhs-kss032613.php
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Lunar cycle determines hunting behavior of nocturnal gulls

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Zooplankton, small fish and squid spend hardly any time at the surface when there's a full moon. To protect themselves from their natural enemies, they hide deeper down in the water on bright nights, coming up to the surface under cover of darkness when there's a new moon instead. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell discovered that this also influences the behaviour of swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcatus), a unique nocturnal species of gull from the Galapagos Islands.

They fitted the birds with loggers and wet/dry sensors which enabled them to see how much time the animals spent at sea at night. Their findings show that the birds' activity was greatest at new moon, in other words the time when the most prey was gathered at the surface of the water. The cycle of the moon therefore also influences the behaviour of seabirds.

The lunar cycle controls the behaviour of various animal species: owls, swallows and bats, for example, align their activity with the phase of the moon to maximise their hunting success. However, marine life is also affected by the moon. Many species of fish hide from their enemies in the depths of the sea during the daytime and only come up to the water's surface in the dark. Known as vertical migration, this phenomenon is additionally influenced by the lunar cycle. The fish thereby avoid swimming on the water's surface at full moon where they would be easy prey. Vertical migration is thus restricted on brighter nights and the animals remain at greater depths. At new moon, on the other hand, the organisms become active and migrate to the surface.

Yet also in the dark of night hunters lie in wait for them -- for instance the swallow-tailed gull Creagrus furcatus from the Galapagos Islands. With eyes that are well adapted to the dark, the gull can see fish below the water's surface even in low light conditions and so does not need the moon as a source of light. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology therefore wanted to find out what effect the lunar cycle had on the hunting behaviour of the gulls.

To this effect, they attached loggers with sensors to 37 birds, which enabled the scientists to measure where, when and how long the animals were in the water. "The gulls fly off to hunt on the open sea and plunge down to the water's surface to snatch squid or small fish," explains Martin Wikelski from the Max Planck Institute in Radolfzell. "From the contact time of the sensors with the water, we were able to conclude in which nights of the month the gulls were particularly active." The behaviour of each bird was recorded for 120 days on average in order to take in several moon phases.

The birds followed the lunar cycles strictly: at new moon the gulls were in the water particularly often. When the nights were very bright, the birds tended to stay on dry land instead. "For the swallow-tailed gulls it makes sense to be guided by the lunar cycle in their hunting, because, with a diving depth of no more than one metre, the prey is quickly beyond their reach on nights with a full moon," says Wikelski.

To facilitate their night-time hunting, swallow-tailed gulls have evolved light-sensitive eyes that are particularly well adapted to the dark nights at sea. They have also lost their melatonin rhythm -- an important clock that regulates sleep -- enabling the swallow-tailed gulls to occupy a new and unique ecological niche.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Sebastian M. Cruz, Mevin Hooten, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Carolina B. Proa?o, David J. Anderson, Vsevolod Afanasyev, Martin Wikelski. At?Sea Behavior Varies with Lunar Phase in a Nocturnal Pelagic Seabird, the Swallow-Tailed Gull. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e56889 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056889

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/KtplcqEW5C8/130327103048.htm

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Wednesday 27 March 2013

British teenage whiz strikes deal with Yahoo

Nick d'Aloisio displays his mobile application Summly, as he poses for photographs after being interviewed by the Associated Press in London, Tuesday, March 26, 2013. One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo. Seventeen year old Nick d'Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn't disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal's value at several million dollars. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, the company logo is displayed at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo the company announced Monday March 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Nick d'Aloisio poses for photographs after being interviewed by The Associated Press in London, Tuesday, March 26, 2013. One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo. Seventeen year old Nick d'Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn't disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal's value at several million dollars. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON (AP) ? At 17, he's a tech whiz, he's rich ? and he can even offer some advice on how to raise your kids.

Teenage programmer Nick D'Aloisio's decision to sell his news application Summly to Yahoo for what's rumored to be a massive payout has turned him into a media sensation. The sale caps a short but successful career at Apple Inc.'s vast app store, where hundreds of thousands of pieces of software compete for the attention of smartphone and tablet users.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, D'Aloisio said his computer skills were self-taught, explaining that he started by mastering movie-making software before tackling programming languages.

He said his parents were "very enthusiastic and supportive." Asked what advice he'd give couples hoping to raise their own wunderkinds, he urged them to let their children explore their own paths ? be it computer science or drama.

"If there's a natural curiosity, that'll lead to, eventually, some success," the teenager said.

Summly is one of several apps that D'Aloisio has designed. It uses complex algorithms to automatically condense online news content into attractive little blocks of text that are useful for the small screens of smartphones.

D'Aloisio said he was thrilled to be working for a "classic Internet company" ? Yahoo! Inc. is older than he is ? and he laughingly dismissed a reporter's suggestion that his friends might be jealous.

"All my friends have been very supportive," he said.

He noted that the publicity over Summly had been building for more than a year, meaning he and those close to him had had time to adjust to the outside attention.

As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn't disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal's value at several million dollars. D'Aloisio had already received investment from several sources, including venture capitalist backer Li Ka-Shing.

Asked what he'll do with the payout, he responded with serious answers unbefitting of an adolescent. He said the money was being kept in a trust until he turns 18, and he didn't seem interested in talking about what he'd buy for himself for his next birthday.

"I'd like to keep it safe. Bank it .... If I was to do anything it'd be angel investing," said D'Aloisio, who is slim with dark brown hair and bears a passing resemblance to Josh Radnor, the actor who plays main character Ted in the TV sitcom "How I Met Your Mother."

The teen app expert said he was interested in automated technologies that could anticipate users' needs before they even reached for their smartphones ? such as an app that downloads the day's news stories just before a user steps into a subway.

D'Aloisio said there were no copyright concerns about Summly, which works by running a statistical analysis of the text to guess which bits are the most relevant to cut the content down. Media companies such as New York-based News Corp. have collaborated on making their content more Summly-friendly, he said, arguing that shortening software would ultimately be a win-win for content providers.

"We're introducing their content to a new, younger demographic," he said. "You like the summary, you read the whole story; it increases publisher viewership."

The technology isn't foolproof: He said the app sometimes has trouble shortening long-form or highbrow pieces, but he noted that humans, too, have trouble summarizing sprawling stories.

The deal announced Monday is Yahoo's fifth small acquisition in the past five months. All have been part of CEO Marissa Mayer's effort to attract more engineers with expertise in building services for smartphones and tablet computers, an increasingly important area of technology that she believes the Internet company had been neglecting.

Although the Yahoo acquisition won't close until later this spring, D'Aloisio said the Summly App will no longer be available. Its technology will return in other Yahoo products.

D'Aloisio will work for Yahoo in its London office ? in part so that he can complete his high school exams. Two other Summly workers will join Yahoo at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters. He said he eventually wants to attend university, perhaps to study philosophy.

"I haven't decided yet," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-26-Yahoo-Acquisition/id-d60b1ec217fd4363abfdb260448d2584

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Tuesday 26 March 2013

"Fixing Cancer" | PhRMA

If we really want to ?fix cancer,? as Ezekiel Emanuel and a group of oncologists suggested in the New York Times this weekend, we should focus on how we can continue to build on medical innovation collaborations that can lead to better scientific knowledge and discovery of targeted treatments that can help defeat this complex disease.? Furthermore, we need to have an ongoing dialogue about what type of public policy framework is necessary?that supports biopharmaceutical innovation so that we can continue to make important advances in medicine.

Speaking of which, TIME magazine just unveiled its April 1 issue titled, ?How to Cure Cancer,? which details collaborative efforts that now exist to push the medical innovation boundaries forward.? The article highlights research collaborations in the oncology space that are moving full speed ahead in trying to find new treatments for patients with gene mutations or other factors that are often the root cause of cancers developing and growing in patients.

In the words of the TIME article author, ?Cancer is an intricate and potentially lethal collaboration of genes gone awry, of growth inhibitors gone missing, of hormones and epigenomes changing and rogue cells breaking free.?? Simply put, the complexity of cancer is extraordinary.? For this very reason, it won?t just take an army to find a solution or ?fix? for a cancer diagnosis.? Rather, it will take all of our science-based armed forces ? all branches ? to build on the scientific and technological advances that have led to better understanding of the many forms of cancer.? This means that biopharmaceutical companies, doctors, federal research institutions and academia need to continue to work together collaboratively to make inroads in the fight against cancer and other diseases.

The whole notion of building on medical advances is important.? For it is incremental innovation that has literally transformed how patients have received care over the last decade and even century.? Underscoring this point is a Boston Healthcare Associates paper which provides a unique overview of the incremental benefits of specific cancer therapies currently available for patients in the U.S. and outlines the pathways by which new benefits have been realized with these treatments.

Dean Kamen, a great medical device champion and inventor, spoke about the issue of medical progress (or incremental innovation) in times of cost-containment and provided a very interesting picture.? He said, ?The reason 100 years ago everyone could afford their healthcare is because healthcare was a doctor giving you some elixir and telling you you?ll be fine. And if it was a cold you would be fine. And if it turns out it was consumption; it was tuberculosis; it was lung cancer?you could still sit there. He?d give you some sympathy, and you?d die. Either way, it?s pretty cheap. We now live in a world where technology has triumphed, in many ways, over death.?

Indeed.? Thankfully, there are many medical options for patients with a wide range of diseases, including cancer.? But the discovery of transformational medicine didn?t happen overnight.? It happened over a period of time in which scientists, oftentimes working with other partners in the innovation ecosystem, built on the knowledge of yesterday?s treatments to make advances in today?s and eventually tomorrow?s treatments.? And the good news is that these gains can lead to savings in the health care system over time.

For this reason, it is critically important to look at the long-term value that medicines, and collaborative efforts, provide not only for patients but also for the U.S. health care system.

In conclusion, I couldn?t agree more with Dean Kamen?s strong statement that, ?Rather than slowing the pace of medical progress in order to cut healthcare costs, America should be encouraging more innovation in life-saving drugs and technologies.?

More to come on this issue next week?

Source: http://catalyst.phrma.org/fixing-cancer/

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I'm Having A Baby This Week, Y'all! - Austin Moms Blog

I?m having a baby this week, y?all!

So here?s some random ramblings of the last nine months and the last few weeks. I haven?t talked a lot about this pregnancy and a friend the other day asked why I?ve been so secretive this go-around. With Lincoln, I posted baby bump pictures all along the way {bare belly and all}, photos of his nursery, talked about my pregnancy, shared his name with my entire network {some I know VERY well and like many, some I haven?t seen/spoken to in a decade}, etc. With bambino #2, I didn?t want to tell anyone we were expecting until at least 12 weeks. Well, that stretched into 17 weeks and we finally announced that we were pregnant with #2 and that ?it? was a boy!

Strangely enough, I didn?t have this burning desire to make a status update about being pregnant. As I saw many friends posting about their joy, I would simply smile in happiness for them, knowing that I was due sooner and still hadn?t shared our joy. Oddly, there was something really neat about keeping it to myself. I know I?m not the only woman in the world to have suffered a miscarriage, but having gone through that experience really shaped my thoughts and feelings about being pregnant again. I didn?t want to be constantly asked the dreaded question, ?How are you feeling?? and be inundated with all of the other conversations that go with being ?pregnant.? Call me selfish.

Although I?ve been private about my pregnancy, 9 months pregnant with a delivery date of this Friday the 29^{th {Good Friday}}, I find myself feeling not far off from when I was pregnant with my soon-to-be oldest son. The nursery has been ready for months, the letters are on the wall and embroidered on the blanket, everything?s been washed in Dreft, bags have been packed for weeks, and the hubs and I just finished deep cleaning the house {can?t have a new baby come home to a speck of dirt?cause he cares and all}. The cradle is ready, diapers are stocked, and all that we are missing is an actual baby boy! But that will all change in a few short days. All in all, I?m just as internally excited about meeting our littlest and have nested just the same? maybe even more since I?m not a ?working? mom this time.

The only thing that?s really been different is preparing for the hospital stay. When Lincoln was born it was a production at the hospital with non-stop visitors, family, nurses, etc. I?m grateful everyone came, but it was definitely overwhelming. We know we can?t eliminate the nurses (nor would I want to), but we have requested from just about everyone to help us make this a more calm experience. I really don?t want tears at the hospital this time. One of the many requests I had when Lincoln was going to be delivered was that since I was having a planned c-section I didn?t want anyone to go to the nursery windows to see him before he was brought to my room. Anyone who has had a c-section knows how in-intimate the experience is and how little time you get to see your baby. I just don?t think it?s fair that everyone gets to oodle over my baby before I?ve even counted his fingers and toes. Take note family!

We?ve been asked by a number of people what our son?s name is and while it?s not a secret, it?s definitely something we?ve kept private. I guess it only seems fitting since we?ve been so private thus far. All I?ll say to those who are curious is that his name is not common, it?s not too ?out there? in terms of made-up-ness, and we?ve been told it goes with Lincoln in likeness.

So there you have it, folks; my last few thoughts before I?m a Mommy X 2! I?m so excited to be a Mommy to another human and I can only hope that Lincoln and his baby brother are best of friends like me and my sister. Hubby and I are BEYOND ready for this new chapter in our lives! Wish us luck!!!

8 days from delivery with Baby #1-turned out to be only 7 days away

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About Allison Mack

Allison is the co-founder of Austin Moms Blog. She is the wife to Wesley, a stay at home mom to Lincoln, and an insanely extroverted social butterfly!

Source: http://austinmomsblog.com/2013/03/26/im-having-a-baby-yall/

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Monday 25 March 2013

NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF WAR DEMAND NEW RULES

WASHINGTON -- At a meeting here recently with high-level Obama officials, a group of foreign correspondents had lots of time to ask them what we had learned from the Iraq War. It was, after all, the 10th anniversary of the start of that half-witted enterprise.

Following all the usual dismal questions about how the George W. administration would have had us believe that a slavering Saddam Hussein had been about to launch nuclear weapons upon us, I purposefully asked something very different: Where are we on the rules of war?

Even in Vietnam, we correspondents, as well as anyone who served in a non-military capacity, were considered "non-combatants" under the Geneva Conventions issued between 1864 and 1949. If I am correct in my reading of the situation then, even the Viet Cong observed this designation and would pass us back, if captured or wounded. It was in Cambodia, with the vicious French Communist-educated Khmer Rouge, that non-combatancy was not observed.

What struck me was that when I mentioned the Geneva Conventions and their protection for journalists, aid workers and nurses and doctors, everyone looked around in quiet confusion. I can only assume they didn't know what the conventions assured us.

In 40-some years of covering virtually every part of the world, I found myself writing not about a solid world of designated states with interstate agreements designed to keep them at peace, but about popularly designed failed states and a "return to past movements" (my contribution to the new nomenklatura). Everywhere I looked there were societies in the process of disintegration and young people choosing to be guerrillas, insurgents and jihadis, almost always using their own society's failed and forgotten past as dark inspiration.

Arguably America's foremost scholar of foreign affairs, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, has been writing on this "new age" recently.

"The dangers inherent in the degradation of the already vulnerable international system cannot be overstated," he wrote recently in the Financial Times. "Social chaos, with paralyzing fear magnified by uncertainty as to its origins, could spread. Making matters potentially even worse, such degradation is not the product of one or another particularly menacing state. Rather, it is the consequence of the rising vulnerability of the global system to cumulative pressures: technological innovation, massive and increasingly impatient populist upheavals and a shift in the distribution of geopolitical power."

We read about it every day now. We dreamed that after the Iraq War less attention (obsession?) would be paid to military actions and military machines. Now we find that, instead, there are endless stories about drones and new, even worse, moral and ethical questions.

Is it moral to kill people with drones, say, in Yemen or Pakistan? Is it moral to kill an American, on our soil or someone else's? Should we hit Iran, as we did, with cyber warfare? What power should an American president have in this new, dark world? Can he alone make out a "kill list" and carry it through?

The Justice Department has just argued in a white paper that the president has legal powers to kill U.S. citizens suspected of presenting an "imminent threat" to the nation. (In the 1950s and '60s, even groups like the Black Panthers might well have been considered threats by certain people.) NATO commissioned the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, a study recently released in which the U.S. and Israel are both criticized for a secret 2009 cyber attack that crippled Iran's nuclear program. (Now, not surprisingly, the world is getting into the act.)

So, here's MY suggestion -- an impassioned one. We, the United States of America, should sponsor an international conference on the new rules of warfare, at some special place of significance. We should root out all the secret groups fighting in mountains and deserts. We should have the leaders of these groups at the rostrum. We should take the blame for our mistakes, but force others to speak out just as honestly.

For several days, the militaries of the world, the peace people and the new insurgents would mix and talk. We should move on from where Geneva in 1949 stopped. We should cooperate with the United Nations and organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, and devise new conventions to protect the sick and wounded, the non-combatants of this new world.

Once again, America would look like the moral and cultural leader of the world, and not like waterboarders and drone targeters. Surely it is time to modernize morality for a newly militarized world.

(Georgie Anne Geyer has been a foreign correspondent and commentator on international affairs for more than 40 years. She can be reached at gigi_geyer(at)juno.com.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/technologies-war-demand-rules-230012471.html

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